SNL opener honors shooting victims; Directed by Upstate native

Many of you saw the opening of Saturday Night as the New York City Children’s Chorus performed Silent Night to honor the victims of Friday’s school shooting in Connecticut.

But what you may not know is the director of the chorus, Mary Wannamaker Huff, grew up in Greenville and is the daughter of retired Furman history professor A.V. Huff.

Huff graduated from Furman in 1999 with a degree in music. She has also been Director of Children’s Choirs and High School Choir at St. Ignatius Loyola Church in New York City, where she prepared choirs for performances in venues ranging from Carnegie Hall and St. Patrick’s Cathedral to the studios of Nickelodeon.

In addition to her work with the New York City Children’s Chorus, Huff is also the Associate Director of Music at Madison Avenue Presbyterian Church. After graduating from Furman, she continued her musical studies on a full scholarship at Yale University where she earned a Master of Music degree.

Comments

The views expressed are not those of this site, this station or its affiliated companies. By posting your comments you agree to accept our terms of use. WYFF News 4 offers readers the ability to comment on stories with the understanding that these comments may be reprinted elsewhere on the site or used on WYFF News 4 newscasts. We ask that you refrain from profanity, hate speech, comments that don’t relate to the story, and any personal remarks. THIS IS IMPORTANT: WYFF News 4 does not edit user submitted statements and we cannot promise that readers will not, at times, find offensive or inaccurate comments posted in the comments area. If you find a comment that is objectionable or offensive, click the flag that appears in the upper right corner when you hover over a comment. Flagged comments may be automatically hidden from comment threads. For comments to appear on the website and/or mobile app, email addresses must be verified through Disqus. We ask the community to monitor this forum with the knowledge that WYFF News 4 does not delete posts based on the content. We are glad to offer commenting on our site but we cannot be responsible for people who abuse the privilege.